All the intelligent matter was inside the public library for a few hours on a perfect San Francisco afternoon. That might sound oxymoronic but there you have it – 75 degrees outside and we were there rooting on our fellow authors and colleagues. There must have been an IQ total of about 25,000 – and [...]
My virgin voyage to the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival is a success so far. Got my mind blown in the WWOZ jazz tent – Astral Project – my new favorite jazz band. I’m not a music critic, so I won’t try to analyze why they were so fabulous – but give them a [...]
About a week ago I learned that a friend of ours who lives at the corner of Vicente and Portola Ave. was “hurt in a car crash coming home from Berkeley rep.” I didn’t have many details at that point, and assumed that it was a freeway accident. Today I learned that she was hit [...]
“A Dreamer’s Guide to Cities” San Francisco Bay Press, Virginia/San Francisco: 2009
In her second full-length poetry collection, Joan Gelfand explores the poignancy of living in a world that is war-torn and environmentally damaged. With a nod to the humorous paradox of modern life, Gelfand writes from the vantage point of a mother, an artist, and a Zen meditator. “A Dreamer’s Guide…” looks beyond the surface of our lives at the connections that make live worth living, and the sensual details that color it. Read More
Seeking Center: A Collection of Poems by Joan Gelfand, Two Bridges Press, Richmond CA: 2006
In Seeking Center, Joan Gelfand joins the reader in a free-wheeling discussion, beyond the poems themselves, regarding what is poetry today, here at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Read More